Psychometric Validation of the Living with Chronic Illness Scale in Patients with Chronic Heart Failure

Area of Science:

• Cardiology
• Psychometrics
• Health Sciences

Background:

• Holistic evaluation of living with chronic heart failure (HF) requires validated self-reported instruments.
• The Living with Chronic Illness Scale-HF (LW-CI-HF) is the sole existing tool for this purpose.
• Assessing the psychometric properties of the LW-CI-HF scale in HF patients is crucial.

Purpose of the Study:

• To analyze the psychometric properties of the LW-CI-HF scale within a heart failure population.
• To validate the LW-CI-HF scale as a reliable and feasible instrument for assessing the experience of living with HF.

Main Methods:

• An international, cross-sectional validation study involving 603 heart failure patients from Spain and Colombia.
• Measurement of living with HF, perceived social support, life satisfaction, quality of life, and global impression of severity.
• Analysis of data quality, acceptability, internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha), test-retest reliability (ICC), and construct validity (correlations).

Main Results:

• The LW-CI-HF scale demonstrated good data quality and acceptability.
• High internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha ≥ 0.7) across all domains.
• Satisfactory test-retest reliability (ICC = 0.9) and significant correlations with social support and quality of life measures (r=0.7).

Conclusions:

• The LW-CI-HF scale is a feasible, reliable, and valid instrument for evaluating the complex process of living with heart failure.
• Results suggest cautious application in clinical practice pending further research.
• Further research is recommended to fully establish the scale's utility in clinical settings.